Bruce Irvin gets taste of transition before ban

Hobbled during most of training camp, Seattle Seahawks linebacker Bruce Irvin used the art of persuasion to get on the field against Green Bay on Friday.

Irvin had been out since Aug. 4 with a lingering hamstring injury but returned to practice last week. And after a good workout with the team’s training staff before the game, the West Virginia product sought out coach Pete Carroll.

“Me being a football player, I just want to play,” Irvin said. “I wasn’t even supposed to play (Friday), but I talked to Pistol Pete (Carroll) and he pulled some strings and got me in there. So I was appreciative of my few reps, and I’m looking forward to next week.”

Irvin played a handful of snaps at his new position, outside linebacker, including a 5-yard tackle for a loss where he sliced through Green Bay’s offensive line to bring down DuJuan Harris.

“He got a couple shots,” Carroll said about Irvin. “So that was great. We just wanted to get him on the practice field. The pregame warm-up was as important as anything, that he would get those reps.

“He had seven plays, I think it was. We were shooting for 10, and we just said, ‘That’s enough.’ We just wanted to get a look at him so he could come back, have something on film and get ready for next week’s game. And we’ll play him a ton next week.”